TES initiates countdown to the Cosmic Classroom with British ESA astronaut Tim Peake

London

11 December 2015

Live stream of link between orbiting astronaut and classrooms in the UK

20-minute link will be Tim Peake’s only mass participation internet event with school children

TES invites all UK schools to sign up to take part in the event live with Tim Peake on the ISS

London, 11 December, 2015: TES, the world’s largest online community of teachers, along with the European Space Agency and UK Space Agency, are inviting schools to take part in a huge Cosmic Classroom event to celebrate the mission of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake.

Schools are being invited to sign up to take part in a live link-up with Tim Peake as he orbits the earth in the International Space Station next year. The Cosmic Classroom event will give all teachers and pupils the chance to simultaneously link-up with Mr Peake during his mission, named Principia.

The teachers in the TES community will ask their pupils in both primary and secondary schools to come up with an out of this world way to spend 20 minutes in live public contact with Tim.

Scheduled to take place in early 2016, it is the first time such event will be accessible to mass participation of every schoolteacher and pupil in the UK, making it potentially the world’s largest schools and space science event.

Lord Jim Knight, chief education advisor of TES Global, the digital education company, comments: “This is a once in a generation opportunity, for British school teachers and pupils to make a live connection with a British astronaut in space. We want every teacher in the country to sign up now, to make it the world’s largest schools and space science event. The countdown to the Cosmic Classroom begins now and I await with anticipation the creative, insightful and entertaining ideas our teachers and their classes come up with.”

Jeremy Curtis, Head of Education at the UK Space Agency, said, “Tim is very keen to make sure that young people across the UK can play their part in his mission, so we are excited to be working with TES on this innovative project. We’re sure pupils will suggest some interesting things for Tim to do to help him share his experience of living and working in space.”

Teachers can register for the cosmic classroom at: tes.com/CosmicClassroom

TES hopes the Cosmic Classroom will boost interest in space-related classroom resources, which are made by teachers for other teachers. Teachers use TES to share classroom resources with one another, designing their own online stores and sharing for free or setting their own prices. There are currently over 30,000 space-related resources in the TES marketplace, as well as nearly 40,000 science-related resources, mapped to the national curriculum for pupils of all ages.

TES Global is a digital, global education company, with commercial and social purpose. Its mission is to help teachers, schools and universities to develop and deliver the best education. It is home to TES, the world’s largest online community of teachers, with 7.7 million registered users, and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. For more information, visit www.tesglobal.com

About the UK Space Agency

The UK Space Agency is at the heart of UK efforts to explore and benefit from space. It is responsible for all strategic decisions on the UK civil space programme and provides a clear, single voice for UK space ambitions. The Agency is responsible for ensuring that the UK retains and grows a strategic capability in the space-based systems, technologies, science and applications. It leads the UK’s civil space programme in order to win sustainable economic growth, secure new scientific knowledge and provide benefits to all citizens.

The UK Space Agency:

co-ordinates UK civil space activity

encourages academic research

supports the UK space industry

raises the profile of UK space activities at home and abroad

increases understanding of space science and its practical benefits

inspires our next generation of UK scientists and engineers

licences the launch and operation of UK spacecraft

promotes co-operation and participation in the European Space programme

For more information about activities in the UK that are supporting Tim Peake’s mission, visit www.principia.org.uk.

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, of whom 20 are Member States of the EU.

ESA has established formal cooperation with seven other Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes.

ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.

Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space.